As some of you will already know, I've been treating myself to plenty of goodies of late and spoiling myself somewhat!

Got my BMW Performance Intake delivered and I installed it today also

I've been looking for reviews on this Intake for some time and there haven't been many and none which could convince me to part with UK £570+ for one but an opportunity came along at a price I couldn't refuse!

To be honest I wasn't expecting very much, especially after I opened the box and looked what was inside. It just looked like the same but with Carbon lid on. The filter as mentioned before looks like a K&N type and there is a replacement lid (uses the same box) and a small intake which takes additional air from the bulkhead!

After closer inspection you can see from these pics that the twin air inlets are the same size as the old one but the divider is in a different position

The connecting pipe is much larger though as seen below

and the lid

here's a picture of the smooth lid compared to the old one

picture of the extra inlet that now leads to the bulkhead which replaces the plastic piece

New K&N style filter

The installation for extremely straight forward and took around 30 mins. Not bad considering I had no installation instructions and also that I'm not the best DIY'er.

Now the juicy stuff!
I started the engine with the bonnet open and immediately, I could hear the induction noise. I give it a few blips and to my surprise, I could hear a difference

Closed the bonnet, into the car and the sound was a little muted at idle, thanks to the good sound insulation of the 1er. Drove away slowly and that's when I thought it was as expected. No difference than before from the inside, windows shut.

I decided to give it a little more of the throttle, in gear and suddenly the Intake comes alive! Not much sound below 3k revs and then suddenly the Intake noise comes rushing in! I dipped below 3k and again just like before but as soon as you hit 3k revs it's almost like some valve has opened up and the sound is very noticeable, even with the windows up. I'm liking it!

Now engine warmed up, I decided to find some nice back roads where I recently had a blast in the 135i and also in mine prior to Intake and now I'm really on it and all I can say is WOW!!!!! The induction note put a grin on my face that I was just not expecting and adds something to the soundtrack that simply not there before!!

At this point I wound the drivers side window down and the sound just magnified!! I recently test drove an M3 CSL and I would honestly say that some of the characteristics are there but not as extreme and a little more muted!! This I was not expecting but I had to wind the window down to get the maximum sound track.

The disadvantage (or advantage) of the 1 Series is that it has excellent sound proofing and like the BMWP exhaust you get the most from it with the windows down. Although you can hear the exhaust and Intake in this case, it is well insulated but you can definitely still hear it!

It also felt noticeably faster, although to be honest I'm not sure if this was a placebo effect or perhaps caused by the condition of my previous filter which was rather dirty after only 13k miles!!

It may or may not produce big gains on the Dyno but the subjective feeling of greater responses and more power are definitely there just like the same impression when I changed the exhaust!

My conclusion to this upgrade is that I will say it's every bit as good as the BMWP exhaust upgrade and adds it's own personality to an already great sound track and I whole heartedly recommend this to anyone. Remember, this is coming from a sceptic of this product!

To be honest, I'm rather shocked that some similar bit's of plastic and a new filter can make such a dramatic subjective difference

Early days I know, perhaps the novelty will wear within time but I will post again after spending more time with it.

I put a Dave F (KnN based) system on my M3 Evo and it used to make the most wonderful noise. Made me feel like I was driving a race car. In fact I still watch videos of my Evo on the ring now and again just to have that sound back in my life for a short time

Thanks Mike. I had a M3 Evo also some years back which was a great car.

I read somewhere that BMW were having problems manufacturing one for the 135i that gave any gains over the already very efficient std. one.

The Injen ones here seem very popular but I assume losing warranty is all part of the question to whether people make changes or not.

The car is getting very close to how I want it and I would go as far to say I prefer it to both my previous M3's E36 & E46 which is a bold statement indeed!

I'm ordering the BMW Performance Brake kit very soon as test driving a 135i has shown how much more feel the brakes are compared to the 130i. The brakes on the 135i are even better than the E92 M3 I recently drove also!

Also found this Gruppe-M imitation from an Asian ebay supplier. Looks like they took a Gruppe-M and copied it exactly.

I'm thinking that the BMW performance is still better, since even the original GruppeM still reuses some BMW (non performance) OEM parts and has a baffle to the airbox. I like how the BMW performance intake has enlarged inlets and no baffles.

That being said, I prefer the K&N filter over the one BMW performance offers.

But, the reality is that the difference might only be a few ponies, since the BMW performance intake with exhaust only nets about 10hp total.

This costs $480US on ebay, but we might be able to get him down further if we order a few. Group buy anyone?